Turkish Central Bank Holds Rates as Energy Prices Cloud Inflation Outlook

The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged Thursday amid uncertainty about how volatile energy prices will affect inflation.

The central bank for the 21 countries that use the euro currency left its benchmark rate unchanged at 2.25% following a quarter-point hike at its previous meeting June 11.

At its fifth meeting of the year chaired by Governor Fatih Karahan, Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on July 23, held the policy rate, the one-week repo auction rate, constant at 37 percent.

But traders are already anticipating a rate hike in September, as ECB president Christine Lagarde warned renewed Middle East hostilities and the resultant rebound in oil prices poses upside risk to the euro zone inflation outlook.